Evalee awoke to the feeling of a light pressure on her chest, and the sound of a soft purring. She opened her eyes, but her world remained dark, black as night. If one had been watching the scene, they would have seen Evalee’s brown eyes glazed over with a light white film, telling anyone who looked close enough that she was blind. She would have dismissed it though without a second thought, the story of how she became blind a mystery to many. For now, she reached out for the creature that had put the pressure on her chest and continued to purr.
Evalee’s hands found the soft ball of fur that she had been searching for: a skinny, but strong looking, gray female cat. It’s green eyes looked at Evalee intently, reaching out and putting a paw on her cheek, making a smile stretch across Evalee’s plump lips.
“Good morning to you too, Felix.” She said, petting the gray cat’s head, smoothing it’s ears back before she set it down on her lap. Felix pawed the soft sheets for a moment before moving with its master, hopping off the bed. As Evalee pushed the blankets aside, her feet hit the familiar wooden floor and Felix wound it’s small body between her legs.
Although Evalee had never seen the inside of her apartment which she now called home, she could feel the notches in the wooden floor, and smell the clean air around her that flowed into the room from the window she had left open the previous night. If she had been able to see, Evalee would have been pleased to find the white walls of her apartment cleaned and untouched by posters or mirrors or other decorative things. It was as bare as it had been when she first moved in, save for her bed that was pushed up against the north wall, and a dresser on the south wall. A ceiling to floor window lined the west wall, and would have given her a perfect view of her outside surroundings, which consisted of a thick, overgrown forest, a coast line nearly visible beyond it.
Evalee moved towards the door that she knew was located on the east wall, and found the brass doorknob with ease, Felix following at her heels. In any other place, the doors would have moved for a person, sliding out of the way, but Theodosia Academy had retained its old style charm in the modernized world. Where other buildings in the world had campuses of concrete and iron, Theodosia was coated in green grass and forest, minutes away from the ocean that made the air around campus smell of salt and rain. Evalee could smell the sea even now as she walked from her bedroom to her washroom, preparing for the meet n’ greet with the new teachers that would be coming into the school today, and the old ones that would be returning.
After showering, Evalee counted the knobs on her dresser, looking for the third drawer down that she knew contained her dresses. She pulled out a familiar feeling sun dress and pulled it on, letting the familiar material brush her skin pleasantly. She couldn’t see it, of course, but anyone else would have seen that it was a brown baby-doll sun dress with a white floral pattern near the bottom. Evalee closed the drawer and counted two down, pulling it open and feeling around for a familiar white knitted shrug. She pulled it over her shoulders and spoke aloud to her cat that purred as it sat in the doorway of her room.
“Do I look alright, Felix? New teachers coming in today, you know.” Evalee asked as she brushed out her layered brown hair before tying it into braids that ended just above her chest. The gray ball of fur replied with a small meow as she moved past, grabbing her white back-pack she kept by her door, filled with a few brail books, a mp3 player and a couple of daggers with intricate golden hilts.
Evalee left the bare apartment behind, shoeless as she always was. She preferred as much contact with the earth as she could—it made her feel more comfortable when navigating an area she wasn’t used to. She didn’t look as one would expect a headmaster of a prestigious university to, but she was one of the best in her field. She reminded herself of that as she made her way from her second floor apartment, down the spiral staircase, smothering her nerves about meeting new people. She focused her mind instead on her duties for the day: greeting the teachers, new and old, and welcoming them to the school with open arms. Felix trotted behind her as they moved down the familiar red-carpeted stairs, as ready as she was going to be.
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